Plan not yet clear on MCG

Posted: Thursday, May 03, 2007

ATLANTA - It looked as if the battle over where to expand the Medical College of Georgia might be over.

But a last-minute change in the budget passed Wednesday by the University System Board of Regents appears to mean university system officials haven't decided whether Athens is the right place for a satellite MCG campus.

An appendix to the board's meeting agenda indicating that $2.8 million from the General Assembly would be used for "Medical College of Georgia expansion in Athens" was changed at the last minute, a spokesman for the University System said Wednesday.

Instead, the regents' budget will more closely track what the legislature's spending plan says - the lawmakers' document called for the $2.8 million to be used "to expand Medical School capacity."

Since the legislature did not specify where the money can be spent, the regents can't do it on their own, said regents spokesman John Millsaps.

Millsaps said the change was made shortly before the regents meeting, after a member of the University System's staff noticed the wording difference between the budget being considered by the regents and the one passed by the legislature.

There was no discussion of the change at the meeting.

Gov. Sonny Perdue set off a political dust-up in January when he included $3.8 million in his budget proposal to plan for a medical school and research campus at the soon-to-be-closed U.S. Navy Supply Corps School in Athens.

Augusta-area lawmakers, including House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin, R-Evans, worked to at least slow the expansion to Athens. Augusta residents and civic leaders worried that placing a satellite campus near the University of Georgia could shift the medical college's research focus to the Athens area.

Other lawmakers questioned Chancellor Erroll Davis, UGA President Michael Adams and MCG President Dan Rahn on why the legislature wasn't more fully informed of the plans to open a branch in Athens before Perdue's budget was released.

Millsaps said the changed language will allow the funds to be used to plan where and how the college will grow.

"The chancellor has made it clear that Dr. Rahn's going to be looking at how we can expand and meet state physician needs both in Augusta and Athens," he said.

There is no firm timetable for a final recommendation on the expansion, Millsaps said.

"We're going to have to come back (to the board) at some point for something more concrete," he said.

The plans for the medical college were included in a $2.1 billion state budget regents approved for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1. That represents a 10.5 percent increase over the amount the state gave the regents in the current spending year, which runs out June 30.